What do you do when you have to face one of the greatest players in history for the first time in your life, in the biggest stadium in the sport? How do you deal with the nerves and pressure of a moment like that? Those were the circumstances surrounding Bernabé Zapata Miralles when he took to the track in the New York afternoon. But Barnabas endured. And he resisted… but he couldn’t do anything to stop the hurricane that is Novak Djokovic in this edition of the US Open.
“It’s a machine,” the Valencian had said of his rival. He immediately realized what it means to fight against one of the best in history, a player who subtracts better than anyone and returns even the most impossible points. Zapata was looking for the first victory of his career against a top-10, but the Serb’s challenge was too high a bar to be surpassed and he ended up losing 6-4 and a double 6-1.
In the first set, Zapata resisted Djokovic’s attacks and even had two break points on serve in the second game. But right away the man from Belgrade began to warm up and raise his tennis level. In the fifth game he broke the Valencian’s serve and kept the distance to take the first set.
There Djokovic put the direct one. The second quarter was barely a story and with breaks in the third, fifth and seventh games, the Cincinnati champion seemed ready to settle the matter.
But Zapata was not going to give him that satisfaction so easily. The third set began with a slightly different look, and thanks to a couple of errors by the Serbian, he once again had two break points that he failed to convert. Not giving up, the Valencian kept trying to find a crack in the Serbian wall during the third game, in which he led 15-40 and 30-40. Novak, without losing his cool, adjusted his blows to the lines and made an outmatched Bernabé run. The veteran imposed the law on him and closed the duel decisively.
“It was a very physical and very tough match, especially in the first set, due to the humidity”, analyzed the Serbian.
At the same time, on the Grandstand track, the Swiss Dominic Stricker gave the surprise by eliminating Stefanos Tsitsipas, seventh favorite of the championship, in a marathon fight of more than four hours and five sets.
The defeat of the Greek for that part of the draw opens the way for Djokovic even more in his particular mission to continue putting distance between him and Nadal, and win a twenty-fourth Grand Slam title. “Being here, on this track, is what gives me strength and what motivates me to keep going, at 36 years old. Not bad for this old geezer!”
